Deputy chief of the Russian army general staff Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn told reporters Aug. 20: "The president ordered us to stop where we were. We are not pulling out or pulling back troops behind this administrative border into South Ossetia," he said. He pointed out the proposed Russian positions on a map, one just outside the Georgian city of Gori. Moscow planned to establish 18 long-term checkpoints including at least eight in undisputed Georgian territory.

Russian UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin maintained at the UN Security Council Tuesday night, Aug. 19, that the French-brokered ceasefire accord his government and Georgia signed allows Russian troops to stay in a buffer zone on the Georgian side of the South Ossetian border.Churkin objected to the draft's affirmation of Georgia's territorial integrity, saying South Ossetia and Abkhazia did not want to be part of Georgia.

debkafile's military sources report Moscow's planned retaliation for America's missile interceptors in Poland and US-Israeli military aid to Georgia may come in the form of installing Iskandar surface missiles in Syria and its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad.Russian Baltic and Middle East warships, submarines and long-range bombers may be armed with nuclear warheads, according to Sunday newspapers in Europe. In Georgia, Russian troops and tanks advanced to within 30 km of Tbilisi Saturday, Aug. 15. A Russian general said Sunday they had started pulling out after president Dimitry Medvedev signed the ceasefire agreement with Georgia and president George W. Bush called again for an immediate withdrawal.

debkafile's exclusive military sources reveal a Russian fleet of warships and marine forces massed opposite the semi-autonomous region of Ajaria on Georgia's southwestern border with Turkey, ready to punish what it regards as Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili's further provocations.The appearance of five former Warsaw pact rulers alongside Saakashvili at a huge national rally outside the Georgian parliament in Tbilisi Tuesday night, Aug. 12, may well be seen by the Kremlin as intolerable provocation.

The latest DEBKA-Net-Weekly sifts through the welter of claims and counter-claims to pin down the whys and wherefores of this conflict - and, intriguingly, what lies behind Russia's overkill against Georgia. This and other exclusive disclosures and insights are featured in our latest DEBKA-Net-Weekly issue out Friday.To subscribe to DEBKA-Net-Weekly click DEBKA-Net-Weekly.com?ref=001">HERE.

With no sign of a Russian military withdrawal from Georgia, Monday, Aug. 18, Russian president Dimitry Medvedev said, "Further aggression against Russian citizens will have a crushing response." The pro-Moscow South Ossetian president Eduard Kokoity asked for a permanent Russian base in the breakaway province - not international observers.US officials told the New York Times that Russia had also moved SS-21 missile launchers to a point near Tskhinvali, putting them within range of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.

Both sides in the Russian-Georgian war traded accusations of continuing the fighting and genocide Monday, Aug. 11, the fourth day of the conflict, as the Kremlin rejected the Georgian president's Mikhail Saakashvili's ceasefire document before it was delivered by the French and Finnish foreign ministers from Tbilisi. The Russian ambassador to NATO said it cannot deal with the "war criminal" Georgian president. Saakashvili accused Moscow of seeking "regime change" in Georgia.Russia confirmed its troops had moved out of breakaway Abhazia to the northwest and invaded the Georgian town of Senaki. Events of the last three days of the Caucasian War are wrapped up and analyzed in debkafile's Special Report below. Click HERE

Moscow pumped more troops to the embattled breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia as the flare-up Saturday, Aug. 9 edged toward all-out war. The Israeli military advisers commissioned by the Georgian president tried to hold back Friday's invasion of Tskhinvali. They then advised him to pull his army out of South Ossetia before it was overpowered and decimated by vastly superior Russian air, tank and infantry forces.Read debkafile's exclusive analysis below on the causes underlying the Caucasian conflict and the presence of Israeli military advisers.

debkafile's military sources report that Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili, under heavy Russian siege, claimed Monday night, Aug. 11, that the Russians had invaded the country and "cut it in half". A full-scale retreat of Georgian troops was ordered from the border town of Gori to defend the capital Tbilisi 60 km away. In the event, Moscow denied seizing the town - or any plans for advancing on the Georgian capital - and turned the panic around to ridicule the pro-Western president.

The five-point document was first presented by French president Nicolas Sarkozy to President Dimitiy Medvedev in Moscow Tuesday, Aug. 12, after Moscow halted military operations in Georgia. It was later amended by Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili. Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said his government does not object to the changes. Both sides were skeptical about the chances of the truce holding up, as reciprocal charges of violations were hurled immediately.

The flight took off from the Georgian capital Tuesday, Aug. 12, bound for Tel Aviv with Israeli visitors and scores of local Jews stranded in the country by the hostilities. Second and third flights are due later. Some 500 Israeli visitors and distressed local Georgian Jews asked to be evacuated.

Latest developments Sunday, Aug. 10, 08- The Russian claim to have sunk a Georgian warship in the Black Sea during an attack on Russian vessels is not confirmed.- Moscow rejected Georgia's appeal for a ceasefire, demanding its unconditional withdrawal from the breakaway South Ossetia, now controlled by superior Russian forces.- US planes have begun flying Georgian troops home from Iraq. - They have nowhere to land after Russian air raids of Tbilisi international airport.- Israel follows the US and NATO in recognizing Georgia's territorial integrity.- Abkhazia has decreed a 10-day state of war with Georgia.- Russia has bombarded two Georgian villages in secessionist Abkhazia's Kodori Gorge.- UN Security Council convenes Sunday for third bid to formulate a ceasefire resolution.- The Red Cross reports 40,000 people have been displaced from their homes in Russian-Georgian conflict.

Russian UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters Wednesday night, Aug. 6: "There have been no firm agreements or understandings or any kind of concerted work" against Iran over its nuclear program.The Russian ambassador also denied setting a deadline for Iran to respond to the offer made on June 19. "The negotiating track is open," he said.

To subscribe to DEBKA-Net-Weekly click DEBKA-Net-Weekly.com?ref=001">HERE.When Damascus confirmed peace talks with Israel on May 21, a secret high-powered military purchasing delegation, headed by air force-air defenses commander Gen. Akhmad Ratyb, was already in Moscow. With a $5 billion allocation in hand from Tehran, the delegation was bidding for the most advanced products of Russia's munitions industry.The six main categories of interest to Damascus are disclosed by DEBKA-Net-Weekly's military sources as - 1. The latest model of the Russian Iskander-E, a surface-to-surface tactical missile with a range of 280 km and a 480-kilo warhead. This missile is considered one of the most advanced of its type in the world today, partly because of its cruise attributes which enable it to home in on target undetected and with high precision. Iskander-E can be guided by pilot-less air vehicles or satellites.2. Fifty of the latest MiG-29SMT fighter-bombers.

debkafile's military sources reveal that the Russian Amur 1 Class PM 138 naval boat, caught up in the heavy storm raging across the Middle East and Mediterranean last week, flashed a distress signal Tuesday Feb. 19. A Greek Navy frigate responded to the call and escorted the PM 138 to the island of Chios. debkafile's military sources point out:1. Russian naval vessels are spending long periods running into months at the Syrian military bases of Latakia and Tartous. 2. Witnesses in Greece say the vessel, described officially as an auxiliary repair craft, boasted an unusual number of antennas for gathering intelligence.

Russia has drawn eleven warships from its Black Sea and Atlantic Northwest fleets for a joint war game in the Mediterranean to underline its drive for a naval presence. They rendezvous off Malta Tuesday, Jan. 15. Dmitry Medvedev, President Vladimir Putin's chosen successor, said Friday, Jan. 11: "Russia must restore its sea power. The Soviet Union's naval might commanded respect."

debkafile's military sources assert that the multi-functional, multiple layer hardware substantially upgrades the shield protecting Iran's banned uranium enrichment facilities at Natanz and Isfahan, as well as Bushehr, from many types or air and missile attack.

The Kremlin, in advanced muscle-flexing mode, announced Monday, Dec. 17, the delivery of the first fuel shipment to power the Iranian nuclear reactor Russia is building at Bushehr. The announcement coincided with an international conference in Paris for 60 countries to consider the Palestinians' aid application. Our Moscow sources report President Vladimir Putin has adopted the strategy of matching - or topping - every US or Western move concerning the Middle East. The Russian president, they reveal, also plans to land in Syria on New Year's Eve, a week before US president George W. Bush begins his Middle East tour.More about Putin's Middle East upmanship in debkafile Special Report below.

The foreign ministry in Moscow announced Monday, Dec. 17, the delivery of the first fuel shipment to power the Iranian nuclear reactor Russia is building at Bushehr. The announcement coincided with an international conference in Paris for 60 countries to consider the Palestinians' application for $5.6 bn in aid. debkafile's Moscow sources report this was a deliberate ploy to steal the thunder of an event built up as the sequel of the US-promoted Middle East conference in Annapolis last month. Our Moscow sources report President Vladimir Putin has adopted the strategy of matching - or topping - every US or Western move concerning the Middle East. He also plans, they reveal, to land in Syria in grand style on New Year's Eve, a week before US president George W. Bush begins his Middle East tour.